Indian Scenario Of Plastics In Agriculture Click Here For More Enquiries
Over 60% of the Indian population directly or indirectly depends upon agricultural economy. Inspite of this, the agricultural sector uses a very small percentage of the total plastics consumed.

Every year water distribution for agriculture needs180,000 T of PVC and 40,000 T of HDPE pipes and 40,000 T of PE film for canal lining. Use of PE for woven sacks lined with PE film for fertilizer packing is 100,000 T for 2005. Government allocations in its 10th and 11th 5- year plans, which envisages adopting 17 million hectares, needs 2.4 million tons of plastic for these applications. Drip irrigation with coverage of 12 million hectares needs PVC use of 700,000 T, PE of 1650,000 T and 100,000 T of PP for pipe, drip lateral and several types of fittings and attachments.

Green house PE film mainly requires UV stability enough for 3 years of weather resistance. Masterbatch for this application was 180 MT in 2005. Shade net made from PE woven fabric has estimated consumption of about 2500 MT in 2005. Assuming the use of 5% of UV masterbatch for UV
stability of these shade net, the requirement of UV masterbatch was 180 MT/year. About 1000 MT of PP leno bags used for packaging of fruits and vegetables etc.,were consumed in 2005. It needs 30 MT of UV masterbatch for UV stability at a dosage of 3%. A total of 310 MT of UV masterbatch for agriculture sector was required in 2005. For storage of food grain as well as fumigation, structure made from 250 - micron black PE film is widely used i.e. every year 5000 MT of PE film. An estimated 500 MT of PE film is used annually in mulch applications.

Great Potential

The average consumption of plastics in agriculture is only about 350,000T/year, which is less than 0.7% of the total plastics consumption of 5 million tons in 2005. India with it’s 1.09 billion people, has enormous need for increased production of food, grains, vegetables and fruits. The potential for increasing the use of plastics in agriculture is therefore really huge.
Courtesy: Plastemart
www.plastemart.com
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